Fate of nature restoration law punted to plenary vote

Tuesday's committee vote showed that there was no majority to reject the law, as demanded by the EPP.

Following votes on amendments to the commission's proposal in mid-June, the final vote on the report prepared by socialist lead MEP César Luena was tied by 44-44 votes, falling short of a majority required to receive the committee approval.

There are 88 MEPs in the environment committee, and, therefore, the report was not adopted either — pushing the fate of this legislation to the next plenary session in July where all MEPs will be able to vote on the law.

Two parliamentary committees had previously rejected the nature restoration proposal.

But EU countries have already reached a common position in the EU Council, despite Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Finland and Sweden's resistance to the law.

The EPP has argued that the restoration law would harm food security and strategic goals, including renewables deployment and mining critical raw materials — although this narrative has been repeatedly debunked by scientists, advocacy groups and the EU Commission itself.

"I am deeply dismayed to see how many of the arguments against the Nature Restoration Law are based on complete misinformation," said Guy Pe'er, a scientist at Germany's Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.

"If the [EU] parliament cannot adopt this law, it may end up not only as a colossal EU failure but even a global embarrassment," he said, criticising the power of lobbyists over science and facts.

For its part, the farm union Copa-Cogeca welcomed the stalemate vote in the environment committee, saying it sent a strong signal to the EU executive. They dubbed the law as "an initiative that is poorly constructed, has no coherent, clear or dedicated budget".

EPP under fire

Previously, the EPP was accused of blackmailing their own members who refused to follow the party's line in the committee vote — and setting a precedent for political manoeuvring by substituting committee members for those who will follow the line.

The same accusations were raised again by the chair of the environment committee after the vote on Tuesday.

Of 21 EPP MEPs in the environment committee, at least seven members were replaced by centre-right lawmakers from other committees such as the agriculture committee.

"Today Manfred Weber succeeded in manipulating the vote by preventing EPP MEPs in favour of Europe's first nature restoration law from voting in Com ENVI," said French Renew MEP Pascal Canfin, pointing out that Tuesday's vote was "meaningless".

He also expressed optimism for the plenary in July, arguing that the centre-right party will not be able to replace its own EPP members in that vote.

Yet, the EPP is still the largest group in the parliament and striking a deal over the nature restoration law would depend on how many members dare to break the party line in the plenary vote.

The fate of the law ultimately hinges on the whole parliament — but the commission has previously warned lawmakers that there is no time to table a new proposal.

"We will not come up with another proposal. Time simply isn't there. We have made our proposal and we are open for discussions about the content of that proposal," EU Commission Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans told MEPs in the environment committee earlier in May.